Carmona pitches eight shutout innings in victory over Red Sox

Thursday

Jul 26, 2007 at 12:01 AMJul 26, 2007 at 5:53 AM

Indians pitcher puts bad week behind him.

Andy Call

Finally, once all for all, Fausto Carmona has put the worst week of his life behind him.

Carmona pitched against Boston on Wednesday night, the first time he has faced the Red Sox since his twin blown saves of 2006. And, boy, did he pitch — eight shutout innings followed by Joe Borowski’s perfect ninth as the Indians outlasted the Red Sox, 1-0, at Jacobs Field.

“I thought about it yesterday, but I didn’t think about it on the mound,” Carmona said through interpreter Luis Rivera. “It was a very good night ... especially against that team. I got some hard times last year from those guys. What happened last year, I didn’t want that to happen again.”

Last year, during Carmona’s forgettable week as Cleveland’s closer, he suffered two blown saves in a span of three days at Fenway Park. A three-run home run by David Ortiz on July 31 and Mark Loretta’s two-run double on Aug. 2, both in the bottom of the ninth, preceded yet another blown save in Detroit three days later.

“He never wavered in regard to his toughness,” Manager Eric Wedge recalled. “He might have been a little upset, but he never lost that look in his eye.”

Carmona (13-4) beat the Tigers in May, then shut down the Red Sox on Wednesday to pull into a tie with teammate C.C. Sabathia, Boston’s Josh Beckett and Chicago’s Carlos Zambrano for the major-league lead in victories.

“The thing that impresses me most is if guys get a hit off of him at all, especially righties,” Indians second baseman Josh Barfield said. “I watch him and wonder just how a guy is supposed to get a hit off of him.”

Cleveland’s 23-year-old right-hander took a no-hitter into the sixth before Coco Crisp’s one-out infield single. Two batters later, Barfield knocked down an infield hit by Ortiz and fired a throw to catcher Victor Martinez, who held onto the ball as he collided with Crisp at home plate for the third out.

The Red Sox managed two hits in the eighth inning, but Martinez gunned down Jason Varitek at second on a botched hit-and-run and cut down Julio Lugo trying to steal second, extending Carmona’s streak of scoreless innings to 18 over three games.

“I’m very proud of Victor,” Carmona said of Martinez, whose success rate at throwing out runners (27 percent) has nearly doubled from last year.

The sinkerball specialist allowed four hits, walked two and struck out six. He had thrown 113 pitches through the eighth, so Wedge elected to give the ball to Borowski to face the top of the Boston order in the ninth.

“The biggest thing is, with Ortiz and Manny (Ramirez) batting 3-4, you don’t want anybody on base in front of them,” Borowski said. “You pretty much have to lock-and-load from Jump Street.”

The locked-and-loaded Borowski fanned Crisp, Dustin Pedroia took a called third strike and Ortiz popped up a 3-2 pitch. That ended the game and finalized Borowski’s 29th save in 32 chances.

The only run of the game scored when Franklin Gutierrez led off the third inning with a home run to left on a 1-0 fastball from Beckett (13-4).

“Beckett throws a very good fastball, and you always look for a guy’s best pitch,” Gutierrez said.

The Indians hadn’t followed a 1-0 loss with a 1-0 win since April of 1942.

“In this day and age, you don’t see that a heck of a lot,” Wedge said. “It says a lot about our guys. The skin’s a little bit thicker and they’re a little bit tougher.”

Nobody’s skin has thickened over the last 12 months like Carmona’s.

“He really concentrated on the game tonight and pitched great,” Gutierrez said. “Right now, you can see he’s very mature. He knows what he’s doing out there.”